Three million march on Spanish general strike

The general strike in Spain has been a resounding success and is an enormous
source of inspiration for socialists all over the world. As Alan Woods predicted
yesterday, the Spanish media today recorded the surprise of the trade union
leaders at the massive following of the strikes and the unanimous opinion of the
media owners and the government that the strike had been a failure. Another
thing obscured the media coverage of the strike and gave an additional excuse to
the mass media to hide the truth: ETA planted two bombs in Andalusia, one in
Marbella and one in Fuengirola. This shows once again the reactionary character
of individual terrorism. Marxists stand for the revolutionary transformation of
society which will be achieved by the combined force of millions of workers and
youth, a mighty power which showed its strength yesterday in Spain during the
general strike and which will again show its numbers tomorrow in the
demonstration against the EU summit in Seville.

The general strike in Spain is part of a process of reawakening of the class
struggle which is taking place in Southern Europe, with the general strike in
Italy and the mass mobilisation in Rome which prepared for it, the general
strike in Greece, the national day of action in Portugal and the mass
mobilisations against the extreme right in France. The general secretary of the
European Confederation of Unions warned yesterday that if the EU summit was to
approve anti-social measures the unions would call a Europe-wide general strike.
Certainly such a measure, if combined with the national demands of the workers
in each country, would have a massive following.

The general strike in Spain, and the general strike in Italy, refute once and
for all those theories, so popular in the last few years, which said that the
working class no longer plays the same role in society, that because of
casualisation the workers have become atomised, that it is impossible to
organise the new sections of the class, and that in order to change society one
must look for other agents, to be found in "civil society".

What we have seen in Spain and in Italy is that when the organised sections
of the working class start to move they act as a powerful magnet for those
sections that that are not yet organised. One striking feature of the mass
demonstrations in Spain was the participation of youth and unorganised layers.
Once the workers move in a decided way they pull behind them all other sections
in society (with the obvious exception of the capitalists). A small anecdotal
indication of this was the attitude of professional cyclists in Spain during the
strike. They were participating in the Tour of Catalonia but voted
overwhelmingly in a mass meeting to join the strike on June 20, refused to run
in Spain (they only ran the Andorra leg and even there, they did not compete,
but rather run together).

Note on the police repression

The government used the police forces in a desperate attempt to prevent the
success of the strike. Dozens of trade unionists were arrested all over Spain.
Particularly brutal was the action of the police in Leganés, south of Madrid,
were a police officer threaten a group of trade unionists with a hand gun. As a
result of the tension and violence provoked by the government there a police
agent died of a heart attack. The local CCOO branch in Leganés is sorry for
this but puts the blame squarely on the government side for their provocative
behaviour. The comrades are asking for the immediate release without charges of
all arrested trade unionists in Leganés and all over Spain, and the government
delegate in Madrid:

More than 3 million people on the demonstrations

Resounding success of the General Strike in Spain

The workers have the strength to defeat the right-wing
government

Now CCOO and UGT must continue the struggle

The general strike of June 20 has been a resounding success. The strike
was followed by more than 90% of industrial workers and it spread throughout the
country in all sections of industry: transport and telecommunications, auto
industry, metal industry, shipyards and harbours, chemical industry, building
industry, etc. The education sector was also paralysed, as was the health
service. Most civil servants at national, regional and local level also followed
the strike. In the countryside thousands of jornaleros (agricultural day
labourers) unanimously followed the strike and the towns in Extremadura and
Andalusia were completely paralysed. In the main cities the strike had a massive
character with the main industrial areas completely shut down, road traffic
reduced to a minimum and news kiosks closed. This general strike comes after the
Greek general strike on Tuesday and takes place on the same day as the national
day of action by thousands of workers in Portugal and the regional strikes in
Italy.

During the day of the strike the right-wing Popular Party government
organised a massive media campaign to try to minimise the effects of the strike
and publicise its alleged failure. The script of all the government spokesmen,
Pio Cabanillas, Rato, Rajoy and Aznar himself, was to deny what was happening in
front of their own eyes: that the strike was having a massive following! It was
pathetic to see Pio Cabanillas state that only 6% of the workforce had
participated in the strike. The government did everything in its power to defeat
the strike: there had never been such a massive deployment of the security
forces against the right to strike. In fact, on June 20 the "violent
pickets", of which the government had been talking in its propaganda, were
precisely the security forces who were used as a picket against the workers and
in favour of the bosses. The brutal repression against thousands of workers and
youth, the police blockade of the UGT central headquarters in Madrid and the
police charges against dozens of workers who were there, the arrest of nearly
100 trade unionists all over the country - all these actions expose the real
reactionary character of this government. However, and despite all the attempts
by the PP, the strike had a majority following

The role of the media

The government, in its provocative attitude, had the support of the owners
and the boards of directors of the mass media, the same media that uses the
fig-leaf of "impartiality of the media" but serve the interests of the
capitalists and their political representatives. The information given by the TV
channels, particularly Antena3 and the state owned RTVE was scandalous in its
bias. It is difficult to lie so much and with such arrogance and shamelessness.
As for the newspapers, the decided attitude of their workers to join the strike
prevented the attempt of the owners and directors of El Mundo, ABC,
La Razón or El País, to see their papers published. Their
workers were helped by the exemplary behaviour of the newspaper couriers who
made sure that no newspapers reached the selling points in the big cities like
Madrid.

It is now clear that these newspapers who sometimes dare to attack the
government on secondary issues, all unite against the common enemy when it comes
to defending the fundamental interests of the ruling class. An example of this
is Pedro J Ramirez, editor of El Mundo, and champion of the freedom of
enterprise, who has been one of the most vocal opponents of the strike and who
used anti-riot police vans to get copies of his newspaper distributed. But all
his efforts were in vain, as newspaper distribution workers solidly prevented
any of them from reaching their destinations. The same can be said of the
"liberal" El País which tried to break the strike,
overwhelmingly supporting by its workers, by using scab printers in Valencia and
then sending thousands of copies to the capital city by van. Again none of them
reached their destination.

In fact, this defiant and arrogant attitude on the part of the government and
the media had the opposite effect, encouraging people to attend the
demonstrations.

The success of the strike can also be measured by the participation in the
demonstrations. The mass participation in these is the best proof of the
willingness of millions of workers to fight to the end against the attacks of
the right-wing government. In many places these were the biggest demos in 20
years, in some others they were even bigger than those during the massive
general strike of December 14, 1988. In Madrid there were more than half a
million people, and the same number participated in Barcelona; in Vigo more than
150,000; in Seville more then 100,000; in Oviedo more than 100,000; in Granada
50,000; in Malaga more than 20,000, and so on in all towns and cities throughout
the country up to a total of more than 3 million.

In the demonstrations there was a clear bold mood of confidence and euphoria.
This mood comes from the strength of the strike and also from the anger and
frustration accumulated over years against the right-wing government. This
strike and the extraordinary participation in the demonstrations shows clearly
an idea that the Marxists have been defending for years: the enormous strength
of the working class, its central role in the mobilisation against the policies
of Capital and the need to put an end to the policy of class collaboration and
social partnership carried out by the trade union leaders of CCOO and UGT.

The general strike of June 20 marks a turning point in the political
situation. It underlines the failure of the policy of the trade union leaders of
demobilising the class which has meant setback after setback, casualisation and
multi-million profits for the capitalists. This general strike must be the
starting point of a serious struggle based on the strength of the working class
and its enthusiastic willingness to fight.

The leaders of CCOO and UGT have an enormous responsibility. If the PP
government does not backtrack and withdraws the decree on the reform of the
unemployment benefits, the duty of the trade union leaders is to prepare for a
stronger movement: a bigger and wider strike against the economic policies of
the PP until they are defeated with the idea of overthrowing this government
which only serves the interests of the bosses and the multinationals. It is
necessary to organise a widespread campaign of mass workplace meetings in every
factory, school and neighbourhood throughout the country in order to draw a
balance-sheet of June 20 and to prepare for the next stage in the movement.

Up until now the weakness shown by the trade union leaders has provoked a
moredecided attitude on the part of the government which has launched
attacks on all fronts: education, health, democratic rights, immigration, etc.
Now it is the time on our part to show an equal resolve not to accept any more
cutbacks.

Workers, trade unionists and youth organised in the Marxist current El
Militante, have been at the forefront of the struggle against the Popular
Party, participating in the struggle of the student youth and the Students'
Union against the LOU and the so-called quality law, in many workers' struggles
and now in the general strike. We make an appeal to continue this work, starting
with the full participation in the working-class trade unions in order to
transform these organizations into genuine fighting tools of the class and to
strengthen the militant Marxist tendency within them.

At the same time we must stress the fact that the struggle for our rights,
against the government's decree, against casualisation, to defend public
education and the health service, the defence of our democratic rights, these
are all part of our struggle to transform society, to put an end to this rotten
and barbaric social system and to build a new social order based on the common
ownership of the means of production and workers democracy: a socialist society.

Immediate withdrawal of the decree!

Unemployment benefits for all the unemployed!

Release without charge all the arrested trade unionists!

The struggle must continue, prepare the forces for a new general strike!

Join the Marxists of El Militante to transform the unions and fight
for socialism!